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Thursday, 22 May 2014

Today, one of my best ever friends, Jax, and her husband Andrew celebrate 10 years of wedded bliss and this is the card that (hopefully) will be with them by now.

I started it on one day and finished it the next as on the first day, my mojo decided to takes itself off on a day trip and left me bereft of any ideas so I gave up - quit, threw in the towel & watched telly.

Anyway's, the next day I was determined it wasn't going to beat me. So here is the recipe ...

I started with the backing paper. I watered down some purple radiant rain paint and applied it randomly to the card with some scrunched up bubble wrap. Dried it off with a heat gun and used Seedless Preserves Distress ink pad with a Visible Image dotty stamp.

I ran a piece of white card through the Papermania Tri-boss Cogs embossing folder. I edged the piece with Dusty Concord Distress ink. I cut the two champagne bottles from some purple Diamond Dust card and added the initials. Both dies are from Tattered Lace. I can't remember where the steampunk heart die came from but I cut it from the same diamond dust card. This topper was matted onto black card.

For the layer behind, I simple inked over a piece of neenah card with Dusty Concord Distress ink and Seedless preserve Distress ink. I sprayed it with water to create the 'night sky' effect.

I then used a 'splatter' mask and inked lightly through with seedless preserves ink pad.

To finish, I cut 3 flowers using Sue Wilson flower dies and scraps of matching card.

Monday, 12 May 2014

Hi everyone and welcome to my little home on the net. Today's blog is about sewing stuff. I enjoy making bags and things but haven't yet ventured into trying clothing. The last skirt I made was whilst I was at school. It looked great, until I picked it up by the waistband and it all fell apart. I didn't go near a machine again for many moons lol

I bought a new machine a few years back - a lovely little Singer for less than £100 with a needle threader too - perfect. Before the machine had even arrived I had bought a pattern for a hobo type bag (I was so confident that I was going to be able to do it). I had been watching Debbie Shore on Create & Craft and she made me believe that I could do it. The machine duly arrived and within an hour I had started on my very first bag. I am lucky to have an independent furniture shop literally 500 yards from my door and they also do made to measure curtains, so from time to time they have sales of oddments etc & bolt ends (I learnt what a bolt was too lol). So I bought a piece for £3 and created my very first bag - with lining and a pocket too.

I then went on to make a few more bags of various types, a cushion cover from a jelly roll (I love jelly rolls) and a wall hanging (from the same jelly roll).

I signed up to a couple of newsletters by email and my favourite has got to be Sew She Can One email a day and one pattern a day (or the link to where it is at least). I also use allfreesewing.com and again, there are some great links to sites and blog etc etc.

Last year, a treasured client that I cleaned house for sadly passed away at the age of 94 and he had left me some money in his will so I bought myself a new machine with more functions and also a new bike. He would be very proud of my purchases as he would want me to make the most use of my windfall x

The quilted organiser baskets that I have made a couple of lately came from a link in a recent email and the direct link to the original pattern is HERE

The blue one is made using the dimensions in the original pattern and curtain weight fabric and the purple one (which I made today whilst waiting for the British gas engineer to come & service the boiler) is made from a Fat Quarter cut in half across the width to make the outer & inner. They are both perfect size for their respective uses.

I decided I wanted a cafe style curtain for my little kitchen window (thats the kitchen that is little, not the window). I had bought some lovely beach themed fabric and decided it was perfect for the job. I did make the stupid mistake of putting the tabs on the wrong way so when I turned the curtain right side out (it is double sided) the tabs were on the inside -- so out came the quick unpick and the issue was resolved.

Then it true crafty style and not wanting to waste the last bit of fabric, I made this tote bag. I didn't have enough plain red fabric for the lining but did have 2 polka dot Fat Quarters in matching red & blue so used those for the lining

I have also started on my first 'quilt proper'. My inspiration to start quilting on a small scale has come from Jenny Rayment and also the wonderful YouTube video's by Jenny Doan from Missouri Star Quilt Company. She breaks things down into simple steps and you say to yourself 'oh yeah, I can see how its done now'. I bought 2 charm packs from Ebay - one in shades of purple and one in white / ivory. I watched Jenny Doan's tutorial on 'half square triangles' and set of making mine.

I had 3 of each design in both the white & the purple packs which gave me enough for each block. I could have mixed them up but on this occasion, I haven't.

This is what the 9 blocks look like laid out on my bed. I have since bought some black fabric and will be putting black sashing in-between each block. I have also bought another piece that matches one of the purple blocks to make the outer border. I am not rushing this project so there won't be a finished photo any time soon lol The points on the blocks aren't all perfect, but then what is... and it is my first 'quilt proper' and galloping horses aren't going to stop to inspect them.

At the weekend just gone, a friend and I went to Hatfield House to the Living Craft Show. So many talented crafters, artists, etc etc and some beautiful finished goods. I bought 4 packs of fabric scraps that had been cut into rough 4" squares. Well at only £2.50 a pack (32 squares in each), it would have been rude not to !!

Saturday evening I set about making a rustic cushion for my sewing chair.

Barely any of the seams line up due to the way the squares were cut and not one square matched another one so it is a totally random, rustic, shabby cushion.

And very comfy under my derrière on my chair (I'm a poet and I didn't know it)

The two photos show both sides.

I literally just made 2 squares and sewed them together, stuffed a cushion pad inside and sewed up the seam by hand.

And I LOVE it :-)

So that's it for today's blog post. Hope I haven't bored you to sleep. Hopefully, if you are thinking of stepping into sewing, I will have helped push you over the edge (not the literal edge of course).

Sunday, 11 May 2014

This week, the lovely DT over on Dragons Dream Tag It On blog set the challenge for us all and this week the theme is 'The Letter Q and Gold'

And here is my interpretation of the theme.

I used a Paper Artsy tag and scrapped some gold Go Create Metallic Paint from Tesco over the entire surface with a plastic scraper.

I then stamped the rulers using a Papermania Urban stamp with versamark and used MicaBoss powder. Once I had heat embossed the MicaBoss, I used some guilding flakes to add texture and a golden sheen.

The patchwork stamp is from Dreamees and I stamped it 3 times with black archival ink.

The patches were coloured in with pencils. I cut them out and attached 2 of the 'blocks' onto the tag then cut a couple of squares out from the 3rd 'block' and used foam pads to decoupage them up.

The machine, scissors and reel were cut on the silhouette cameo using GSD files, again from Dreamees cuttables cd (number 3 to be exact). I used a sepia fine line pen to draw on the thread on the reel. The inked the machine and scissors with versamark ink and embossed with gold fine detail powder.

Sunday, 4 May 2014

Evening all, thought I would get around to doing the blog post for all the cards I have made over the past few days for commissions.It has certainly been a busy few days and I'm not finished yet. But tomorrow is another day (once I get back from work that is lol)

So here goes. This first card is for a silver wedding anniversary. I started with a 6" square piece of white card which I ran through the ebosser with a Swiss dots mask. I used the same weight of card to cut the white heart using a spellbinder die. I also cut another heart from a textured piece of matt silver mirri card, which was also used for the mats behind the white layers.

The bow was cut on the silhouette cameo and I will hold my hand up and admit it was pure dumb luck that the width of the bow ended up the same as the strip that it sits on :-)

To finish, I added the '25' that was cut from the Tattered Lace alphabet / number die set and added 3 holographic gems in the corner. The whole thing was then layered onto an 8 x 8 card blank made from 16" square Centura card stock with a hint of silver.

This next card is for the sister of a lovely lady who makes regular orders. For this card, she sketched out roughly what she wanted and this is my interpretation of the sketch.

To start I used a cloud stencil that I drew myself and cut on the silhouette cameo with some distress inks over the 'waste' bits. I then sat and split lengths of masking tape, which is not that easy as it wants to go its own way, despite you telling it otherwise !! Each strip was then stuck to the card starting at the middle of the card and working towards the bottom, therefore covering the straight edge each time. The edges were left longer & then tucked around the back of the topper.

I dusted over the masking tape with distress ink. I was then guided by my bestie, Jax, to add some glitter so I used a sakura silver star pen along the top of the 'waves' which looks better in real life than it does in the photo.

The dolphins and speech bubble were created in Serif, saved as SVG files, sent to the silhouette cameo and cut from there.

To finish, the topper was matted onto black card and 3 aqua gems placed in the corner.

Still with me? Good, then I shall carry on ....

This next card is for a customers partner. I happen to know he likes cars and she wanted something a bit quirky for him. I used an image from one of the La Pashe CD's and decoupaged it and mounted the topper on black card. Then set about making the background. I used a piece of Kraft card and inked through a stencil I designed & cut myself. I inked through with versamark and dusted with charcoal mica powder. I then used a swiss dots mask & a hexagon mask to create layers, along with splodges from another mask.

I wanted to add some cogs for texture. I used the side of a cereal packet to cut the cogs on the cameo but it didn't go through the waxed outer layer of the cereal packet. However, the layers split really well and I was left with the almost perfect cogs. I dusted them with distress inks and added Treasure gold in both Copper & Brass to grunge them up a bit.

The speech bubble was inked & stencil over to make it 'dirty'

And last but not least tonight is the wedding card. For this I ran a piece of white card through the BigShot with a spellbinder die using the embossing mat and matted it onto matt silver mirri card. I used some lace to create a border with a strip of the matt mirri card and attached it to the card blank before adding the topper.

The sentiment and border were cut on the cameo using the same weight white card and matt silver mirri card. I also used the same types of card to cut the butterflies and simply attached them to the card to form a kaleidoscope of butterflies.

And that my lovelies, is the end of this EPIC blog post :-)

Hope you have enjoyed your visit and thank you for stopping by today x

In Memory Of My Son, Tristan.

Tristan died suddenly on 18th Feb 2015 from an intra-cerebral haemorrhage. He was 32. There was no warning and, thankfully, no pain for him. If you are able, please click on photo to donate to www.tcf.org.uk. The Compassionate Friends provide support for bereaved parents and siblings.